Alternatives to Dieting

Study after study has shown that the majority of dieters don't maintain their weight loss, and many dieters end up heavier than before they started dieting. Yet "losing weight" remains one of the top New Year's Resolutions each January.

If you're tired of the dieting merry-go-round of losing and gaining and losing and gaining again, you may be ready for an alternative to traditional diets. Many of the approaches described below are similar or inter-related, but each has a different focus or flavor.

Non-dieting

What it is: Non-dieting is just what it sounds like: giving up dieting. It means eating what you want and not following a food plan prescribed by someone else.

Results: A Glamour magazine article published a few years ago told the story of three women who had been following popular diet plans and asked them to give up their diets for one month. The women ate what they liked, but kept an informal food diary for 30 days. One woman gained two pounds, another woman stayed exactly the same weight, and a third actually lost a couple of pounds. They speculated that the restriction of traditional diets made them feel rebellious, and so they ended up cheating and sabotaging their weight-loss efforts when they were dieting. All three felt their mental health had improved once they ditched their diets.

How to do it: Consider giving up dieting for a set period, such as a month or six months. Eat as normally as possible- don't purposely try to stuff yourself or deprive yourself but just eat the way you did before you went on your first diet. If you like, you can keep a food diary and track what you eat. Many people find this makes them more aware of patterns in their food intake, from eating too small a breakfast to taking in more sodium than they'd like. Make sure to use this as a health tool and not as an instrument for beating yourself up mentally. At the end of the period you've set aside, you may decide to make non-dieting a permanent way of life.

Diet recovery

What it is: Several books or therapists offer an alternative way of eating that focuses on "recovering" from dieting. Resources include "The Diet Survivor's Handbook" and "Overcoming Overeating." These books and therapists focus on the idea that dieting is damaging to a person's mental health and self-esteem and that traditional dieting tends to create negative body images, especially in women.

Results: The goal of diet recovery is to accept yourself for who you are and learn to eat intuitively. Many people who try diet recovery programs find they are more accepting of their bodies, have better self-esteem, and feel less worried about making good food choices.

How to do it: Ideally, those who have the worst problems with body image and disordered eating caused by yo-yo dieting could use the support of a therapist trained in diet recovery or the Overcoming Overeating philosophy. If that's not possible, picking up a good book or forming a support group based on a diet recovery philosophy may be a good option. The first step is to understand how diets fail us and damage our self-esteem. The next step is to stop dieting. Finally, those in diet recovery learn to heal their relationship with food, eat intuitively, and stop negative thoughts and statements about their bodies. The website for the Diet Survivor's Handbook and the website associated with Overcoming Overeating have many useful, free articles to get you started.

Intuitive eating

What it is: Intuitive eating is, at its most basic, listening to your body when you make food choices. It involves giving up rules about "good foods" and "bad foods" and instead deciding for yourself what foods will be most satisfying in the short term and most healthful in the long term.

Results. Those who try intuitive eating find that while they may go wild and eat a lot of formerly "forbidden" foods at first, they eventually feel much calmer around food. They learn to trust their intuition about when to eat, what to eat and when they're full. They eventually learn to eat foods that make them feel good in the long term rather than following a plan devised by someone else that tells them what foods they should or should not be eating.

How to do it: A few of the basics include honoring your hungry and full signals, giving up dieting, not judging yourself based on what you eat or don't eat, recognizing when you're using food to comfort yourself and finding other ways to handle your feelings besides eating. Resources include books by Geneen Roth and the Intuitive Eating website.

HAES

What it is: "Health at Every Size" is simply the idea that we can work on being healthy completely independent of what size our bodies are. It focuses on healthy behaviors as defined by the individual without a focus on weight loss or weight gain.

Results. Those who practice HAES may gain weight, lose weight, or stay exactly the same. HAES is not a diet or weight-loss plan but rather a philosophy about health that involves accepting yourself the way you are now and working to be healthy without focusing on the numbers on the scale.

How to do it: The two main prongs of Health at Every Size are healthy eating and activity, but these are not defined by the "experts" but by the individual. HAES proponents advise eating naturally, in a way that balances pleasure and nutrition, and being active in a way that is pleasurable and joyful rather than painful or punishing. Linda Bacon PhD. recently published an excellent book on the topic, "Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight."

Size acceptance or body positivity

What it is: Size acceptance is the philosophy that being thin is no better than being fat or vice versa and acknowledging that people come in a variety of sizes. Body positivity takes this one step further, beyond mere acceptance to a celebration of your body, no matter what size it is. While many vocal proponents of size positivity are fat, size acceptance is for anyone skinny, fat or in between. Size acceptance isn't about "letting yourself go" or giving up, but rather about moving on from unrealistic goals.

Results: Size acceptance and body positivity tend to promote higher self-esteem and healthier body images. Women, specifically, often reap the benefits of better mental health through reading about and practicing size acceptance and educating themselves about the way our culture often promotes an ideal body that is not obtainable for most women.

How to do it: Some suggestions from the body positive website any-body.org include 1) Stop weighing yourself; 2) stop saying negative things about your body 3) Look at the beauty and weight-loss industries with a critical eye and 4) focus on things you like about yourself. Being body positive is often easier if you have external support. You can find it online through body positive blogs like Shapely Prose or by forming discussion and support groups with friends or community members.

If you're ready to stop dieting and try another approach, here are some other resources you might find useful:

Joy Nash's body positive blog and videos, including "A Fat Rant"

The book When Women Stop Hating their Bodies: Freeing yourself from weight and food obsession

Fat!So, the book and the related website

The book "Big Fat Lies" by Glenn Gaesser

The book "Rethinking Thin" by Gina Kolata. Free on-line exerpt here: Genes Take Charge, and Diets Fall by the Wayside

The book "The Diet Myth" by Paul Campos